Chinese students may deserve the deepest sympathy. In addition to the onerous amount of homework and examinations, they have to face another struggle of instinct and willpower between puppy love and the draconian school rules.
On March 28, a senior high school in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, laid out several new rules requiring boys and girls to stay at least 50 cm away from one another, not to have meals at a table with the other sex, and not to appear as a couple while on campus.
“The school did it because so many sophomores are experiencing puppy love. But it is not written in black and white; the school has made intolerable impositions on all of us,” one male student said.
But dissenting voices can also be heard.
“Days in high school are an important page of our lives, and the school is trying to prevent puppy love among the students,” a female student said. “We have to put more energy into studying. So I think the three regulations are relatively appropriate.”
What if someone is found to have broken the rules? The students had no specific answers becuase the teachers did not elaborate on the details.
“Now the spring has arrived and flowers are in full blossom, we take the rules as a reminder and prevent overt intimacy between the boys and girls,” the school’s vice principal said.
The “Three No’s” regulation led to a hot discussion about intolerable school regulations on China’s micro blogging service, Weibo. Most of the users grabbed the chance to express their disappointment and frustration over the rules that still rankle.
User Simple爱集邮 wrote:#The Intolerable School Regulations# There was three Don’ts in my high school: Don’t get involved in romance; don’t carry a cell phone and don’t enter the cyber café. And…. It was sheer folly that I obeyed all the regulations.”
User 哥超牛 wrote:”# The Intolerable School Regulations# I had a long talk with a girl in my class. Soon it was considered puppy love, and they said I had broken the school regulations. But at that time, I was in junior high school.”
User 懒到死的微微 shen wrote: ”# The Intolerable School Regulations# Such regulations will only generate a negative mentality among the students. They may get more inclined to stay close, dine on a shared table and stay together with an opposite sex. ”
By Xu Xinlei
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